Cooperative control design for non-holonomic chained-form systems

Consensus and formation control problems for multiple non-holonomic chained-form systems are solved in this paper. For consensus problem, based on cascaded structure of the chained-form systems, it amounts to solving two consensus subproblems of two linear subsystems transformed from the original system. With the obtained consensus protocols and the method of virtual structure, decentralised formation controllers can then be designed. According to different desired motion patterns of the entire group, both the formation tracking and formation stabilisation problems can be considered. The significance of this paper lies in adapting theories from non-autonomous cascaded systems for cooperative control design for non-holonomic chained-form systems. A unique feature of our proposed solution is that all states can be cooperatively controlled to achieve the desired references for non-holonomic chained-form system. Simulation results are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods in solving cooperative control problems of non-holonomic chained-form systems.